Faster broadband soon to reach Vale of Belvoir villages

Villages in the Vale of Belvoir will be among the next areas set to benefit from fast fibre broadband thanks to the Superfast Leicestershire project.

More than 37,000 homes and businesses across Leicestershire are now able to benefit from the new technology thanks to the project.

The achievement marks the halfway point in the county council’s rollout of fibre broadband in partnership with BT, which remains on course to make the high-speed technology available to more than 72,000 premises across the county by the end of 2018.

Superfast Leicestershire has now installed 190 new fibre broadband cabinets and laid more than 318,000 metres of underground cables throughout the county.

Steve Henderson, BT’s regional director for next generation access, said: “A whole world of opportunity has been opened up to tens of thousands of Leicestershire homes and businesses thanks to the faster download speeds that fibre brings. We’re pleased to have reached the halfway point of the project and look forward to transforming the fortunes of many more communities across the county.”

The next areas set to benefit from the partnership include Hose, Stathern and Harby in the Vale of Belvoir.

By the end of 2018 it’s expected that more than 360,000 homes and businesses across Leicestershire will have access to fibre broadband thanks to the original £18.8m Superfast Leicestershire contract (62,000 homes), the £9.2 million contract extension signed in March (10,000) and BT’s own commercial rollout of the technology (290,000).

Work is being carried out by Openreach, BT’s local network business. Residents and businesses with access to fibre broadband can choose from a wide range of internet service providers and so benefit from competitive pricing and products.

Benefits of fibre broadband include faster download and upload speeds; the ability to access the internet via multiple devices without experiencing a slow connection, faster downloads of films and music, a better online gaming experience, improved file sharing for businesses, solutions based on Cloud computing and being able to work more flexibly.

For more about Superfast Leicestershire visit www.superfastleicestershire.org.uk or look out for #SuperfastLeics on Twitter.